$71 million from America in a $3 billion gold month

§1A reversal, and where it came from.

Global gold-backed exchange-traded funds took in $3 billion in July, reversing two consecutive months of outflows, in figures the World Gold Council published on 6 August under the title Europe's golden heatwave. Collective holdings rose 23 tonnes to 4,068 tonnes and assets under management rose 1% to $530 billion. This paper has cited the World Gold Council fifteen times and has never once covered its monthly flows series, which is a gap on this desk rather than a scoop, and the figures are eight days old as they print here. They are reported now because this paper has spent August printing a gold mark every morning and reporting the physical buyer, and has never said who was on the other side of the trade.

The regional split is the finding. Europe took $2 billion of the month's inflow, with the United Kingdom alone at $875 million and Switzerland at $657 million. Asia took $616 million, with China the strongest contributor and Japan in outflow. North America took $71 million. Other regions, chiefly Australia and South Africa, took $140 million. Two European countries raised nearly twice what the rest of the world did: $1,532 million from Britain and Switzerland against $827 million from Asia, North America and everywhere else combined, a ratio of 1.85 to one and this desk's arithmetic. North America, the largest gold ETF market in the world by assets, supplied 2.5% of the named regional total. The named regions sum to $2,827 million against a headline of $3 billion, because every component is rounded, and that difference is this desk's subtraction rather than a discrepancy in the source.

§2Two countries against the world.

Set that against what this paper has already published about the physical buyer and the year stops looking contradictory. Global jewellery demand fell to 278 tonnes in the second quarter, the smallest since the pandemic, reported here on 31 July. India took 75.1 tonnes, down 15% by weight, reported the same day. China's gold jewellery consumption fell to its lowest since 2004, reported here on 3 August. Through all of that the gold price rose, and the question this desk kept leaving open was who was buying what the bride was not. Part of the answer is a European investor putting $2 billion into a fund in a single month while the American investor sat out with $71 million, and the rest is central banks and the Chinese bar buyer this paper covered on 9 August.

§3The buyer this paper had not named.

Three limits belong on this. The series is monthly and it is eight days old, so it describes July and says nothing about the $27.90 gold gave back this morning. Holdings at 4,068 tonnes remain 108 tonnes, or 2.59%, below the record of 4,176 tonnes set on 27 February, so a month of inflow has not undone the year's withdrawal. And the 1% rise in assets under management against a 23-tonne rise in holdings means most of the gain in the dollar figure is the gold price rather than new money arriving. Activity thinned in the same month: average daily trading volumes across the gold market fell 3.5% to $356 billion and over-the-counter volumes fell 3.4% to $205 billion. Money came in through a quieter door than usual.